18 tires and opening and slamming shut the rear-compartment door "It's efferves- cent," a platinum-haired lady said. A 111ild, well-bred air of triumph pervaded the room. Orchids abounded. Mr. N anovic, a small man with a high forehead, was talking to a young 111an wearing a green tweed jacket. "Prismatic aluminulll in the paint gives it that third-dimensional look," he said, with a wave of his hand. His cOlllpanion loo ed 111ildly inter- ested. "I'm George Balasses, manag- ing editor of Your Cor," he said briskly. "Now what's the m'lXimUlll horse- power of this job?" Mr. Nanovic's face took on a pained expression. Before he could answer, a young man with the widest shoulders, or the widest jacket, we've ever seen stepped confidently up to the 111Îcro- phone between the pianos and began singing "You Are Too BeautIful" in a lusty tremolo. "This is the first auto exhibit I ever heard of with a male singer," Mr. N anovic said above the music. "]ames Melton sang at the Watkins Glen race," Mr. Balasses said darkly. "Vlhat did he sing?" Mr. N anov c asked. "'The Star-Spangled Banner,'" Mr. Balasses said. There was a smatterIng of applause as the singer finished, and we drifted around to the rear of the car, falling in with a lady who said she was Mrs. Lucia Collins, of Look, and a man with 3 badge labelled "Frank Arlllstrong." Mrs. Collins stared at the lights and bumper. "]ust like jewelry," she said. ' The taillights and back-up lights could be rIngs and the bUlllper a bracelet. " Up fron t, the doors were being slammed. "I'm dying to get a pair of shoes made out of that upholstery!" l\Ilrs. Collins added, and Mr. Armstrong beamed. "It's dotted green SWISS nylon with a dark-green cordaveen bolster," Mr. Armstrong said. "We've also gentled the curve of the roof, for easier Ingress and egress. Tiptoe pressure on the throt- tle and you're awa) !" Mr. Balasses marched past, followed by a thin young man wearIng glasses. "I thought Milton Berle was going to be here," the thIn young man said grumpily. We gave the right rear tire a kick and moved forward again The front door of the car was flung open, and a tdll, handsome young ladv confronted " I ' . B . , d us. 111 wearIng rIgance s new lIster of mustard yellow, with a lowered waistline-to 111atch the Buick's-and a Sally Victor straw bonnet of pale yel- low," she announced. We congratulated her. "Nothing gets rumpled when I get In and out," she added, and popped in agaIn. Mr. Arlllstrong came by with a lady editor. "By far the newest car on the 111arket," he told her. "The paint is like iridescent nail pol- ish!" the lady exclaimed. "Mr. Ivan L. "'"riles, general man- ager of the Buick Motor Division, 111aIn- tains people should buy cars like meat- by the pound," Mr. Armstrong de- clared. "A lady on the Ann Rutherford show just told me this car sets off a WOlllan like a well-appointed drawing room. More hIp room." Mr. Balasses approached, a slide rule in his hand. "The seats are wider," :VIr. Arm- " , if strong went on, so women won t scu their stockings when they get out." "I understand the combustion cham- ber on this bomb has got a lower dome," Mr. Balasses said challengingly to Mr. Armstrong, who backed away a little. "And less quench area." "Full rear-wheel-fender openings," Mr. Armstrong murmured to the lady editor, and bustled her off to the rear. . I NcIDENrAL INTELLIGENCE: Sali's Italian Restaurant, on West Forty- eighth Street, offers a "pot of demi- tasse. " Ex- MY l o' S liJ/ ho S INCE hardly a day goes b) without our ha ving occaSIon to refer to Who's Who in America, we were inter- ested to meet the publisher, Wheeler Sammons, of the A. N. Marquis Com- pany, at a cocktail party the other after- noon. He was surrounded by constitu- ents of his compendium, so we made a date to call on hIm at his hotel the next day. MeanwhIle, we looked hIm up in our Who's Who library, which goes back to 1926. Mr. S., born in Tacoma, Washington, in 1889, is down in the 1 926-27 volume as the author of several books, including "Making More Out of Advertising" and "Attracting and HoldIng Customers," and as a graduate of the "Cana joharie (N.Y.) High Sch." In the 1928-29 volume, he is a graduate of the "Cana joharie (N.].) High Sch." A New ]erse) schoolboy he remains until 1 944-45, when Who's Who moves his alma 111ater back to New York. From 1930- 31 through 1936-37, he is "v.p. and treas. The A. N. Marquis Co.," but in 1938-39 all reference to the MarquIs Co. dIsappears. Between the late nine- teen-twenties and the late nineteen- forties, he offers an Increasing nUlllber of clubs and directorships, working his way up to twenty-two lines, but in 1948-49 all these sink out of sight, along with his books, giving rise to a truncated, ten-line Sammons-birth and education, 111arriage, children, and a terse "with Willialll Filene's Sons Co., Boston, 1 912-13; with A. W. Shaw Co., publishers, Chicago, 1 913-28; pres., 1925-28; publishing independent- ly since 1928." In 1952-53, no Mr. Samlllons at all. We asked Mr. S. how come, and he said, "I took myself out. I really don't know why. We've also delisted Richard Whitney and Alger Hiss, and we recently dropped a man who was running a diploma mill. The Cana- Joharie High School, which I attended, is in New York State. I changed it to New ]ersey after I bought Who's Who. Imitators sometimes lift biographies from us, and I thought if they lifted mine, I could sue and show the Judge the error to prove they couldn' t have gone to the source, as they always claim. Well, no one did lift mine, so after a while I put the school back in New York. But some of our other intentional errors-we can them burglar alarms- have paid off. We have several fake bi- ographies scattered through the book- people who don't exist. I won't tell you who they are; they 111a} still come in handy in court." Mr. S. is the son of Thomas Salll- mons, who was consul general to Man- churia and Korea in the early years of this century. "I went there with him," the son said. "I wrote those books for A. W. Shaw on a salary. He and I bought control of Who's Who from Marquis around 1926, for a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and I later bought Shaw and MarquIs out, for around a hundred thousand dollars more. Marquis was highhanded. He'd send people Who's Who forms and then not list thelll if he didn't like the way they filled them out. I found some pitIful letters to him from people to whom this had happened. He didn't list Frank Lloyd Wright until 1924; he didn't approve of his private life Not that I ever found a pitiful letter from